Sharing the volunteering experience with IsraAid in Greece December 2015. In this blog I will express my ideas, thoughts and opinions of what I witness.

יום שישי, 1 בינואר 2016

Happy New Years from Lesbos, Greece

It has been over a week here on the Island of Lesbos since my
arrival. I find myself in awe of the situation, the people who save the lives
of refugees, the refugees themselves and my small part observing and helping in
all of this. Although, war is terrible
and aweful, I have found hope in here. I know how we all talk about peace in
the abstract. We hope for peace, we advocate for it. But few if any are in a
position to promote it. A lady here recently told me: “Mirit you won’t change
anything, we are not here to change” and I must say my experience has taught me
she was wrong, that ordinary people can indeed make change.

I have made peace here on the Island of Lesbos in every possible
way peace can be made; I have learned other people's languages, about different
cultural approaches and I cared. I was not afraid to say who I am and where I
am from. I gave a smile to all who needed it. I have made friendships with
people from every corner of the world. Yes, I have made friendships with
Palestinians, Syrians, Iraqi, Iranian, Afghani, Kurds and I must admit none of
them ever said to me anything bad to me when I said I am Israeli.

There was one Syrian woman I spent time with, my age with a
child the same age as my own child. She asked me where I was from and I said I
am from Israel. She stopped what she was doing and she came to me and hugged me
ever so tightly. She said to me "God bless Israel". I was in tears.
She was in tears. I really don’t know what is peace if that is not that.

I have so many stories to tell you, not all are easy to tell,
not all have happy endings but through many struggles, debates and cultural
differences there are important lessons to understand. We are all human. We
care for our families, we all need to make a living, to provide and to live a respectful
life. We do have different ways to understand each other, different
mentalities, different customs, different languages but we all want to feel that
we belong.